Mac users tend to love their iPod minis, but what about Windows users? Forbes is addressing this question with an article looking at the iPod mini and its interaction with Windows. The article looks at the iTunes software, the iPod mini and its accessories, and more. From Forbes:
Apple Computer’s iPod mini looks as if it was designed for adolescent girls who like their electronic devices to look like their candy. The new portable MP3 player comes in five shiny new colors: blue, sliver, green, gold and pink. Apple describes the iPod mini as the “ultimate fashion statement”–a line that could have been pulled straight out of Tiger Beat magazine.
If you cut through the layer of teeny-bopper marketing, however, you will find Apple’s (nasdaq: AAPL – news – people ) iPod mini is a decent player that deserves to be marketed as more than a fashion accessory–it works well, it’s easy to use and the simple design is friendly and functional.
Although users of Microsoft’s (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ) Windows like to complain that iTunes software is problematic on their machines, we used the iPod mini and iTunes on a Windows 2000 system and didn’t experience any incompatibility issues whatsoever. If we had any complaints about iTunes (we used version 4.2), it is just that the application itself is big and unwieldy, and it can be slow and clunky to use.
By comparison, the software available for cheaper, flash-based players may be a fraction of the size of iTunes, but it may also offer much less functionality. For instance, it may be a bare bones application used to transfer MP3 files from a computer to a portable player, and cannot convert songs from a CD into MP3 files, which iTunes does well.
You can read the full article at Forbes’ Web site.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Cut and dry, yes, and some people might say Ms. Schiffman’s criticisms focus on some extraneous issues. That, however, is why this is a good review. There are many folks in the world that think that fashion statements are for little girls, that you don’t need no danged contacts in your music player, and that games are for chumps with too much time on their hands.
For those people, this review also says you can ignore those things because the iPod mini is a very good music player. It’s a good thing for someone to speak to such potential customers, because Apple certainly isn’t. Ms. Schiffman’s outlook is likely to help Apple sell a few more iPod minis than it might otherwise have sold, and that’s always a Good Thing�.